Cedric J. Rogers | Episode 62, Part 2

Part 2: Jamarlin continues his talk with Cedric Rogers, co-founder of Culture Genesis, a digital studio focused on remixing technology for underserved audiences. They discuss founders being honest with investors about the health of their startups, and whether Zion Williamson and the NCAA sports industrial complex stole $1T of wealth from Black America. They also compare the startup game to the rap game with heavy PR fluff and Theranos-like elements in the private tech market.

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Part 1: Jamarlin talks to Cedric Rogers and Shaun Newsum, co-founders of Culture Genesis, a digital studio focused on remixing technology for underserved audiences. We discuss Cedric’s work as an engineer for Apple, where he offered product ideas directly to Steve Jobs. We also discuss whether all HBCUs should be saved considering rapid changes in debt economics and a tech-oriented environment. Or do we need to reimagine education with new money going toward more fruitful, imaginative and low-debt concepts?

Part 2: Jamarlin talks to Brandon Tory, a hip-hop artist and senior software engineer at Google, about the recruiting process and compensation for new tech engineers. They discuss the high stakes for Black America not scaling up in technology and the potential to weaponize tech against us, whether hip hop dumbs the people down and what a hip-hop summit would look like in 2019. They also discuss harnessing the power of tech outside the big-tech complex to promote freedom, justice, and equality.

Part 1: Jamarlin talks to Brandon Tory, a hip-hop artist and senior software engineer at Google. They discuss Brandon’s journey from homelessness to teaching himself to code and working with Timbaland and Jimmy Iovine. Brandon talks about feeling cultural pressure to hide his “geekness” from his friends and how he landed a job as an Apple engineer.

Part 3 of the Swamp Series: Jamarlin continues his talk with corporate lobbyist Howard Franklin, who has represented clients such as Amazon, Google and Sprint. They discuss the backdoor lobbying techniques of the swamp and the Congressional Black Caucus backing DCCC’s Cheri Bustos, who threatened to “blacklist” young candidates that challenge the DNC establishment in the 2020 election. They also discuss the Congressional Black Caucus supporting the Clinton crime bill (mass incarceration) and the case for reparations for African-American descendents of slaves.

Part 2: Jamarlin continues his series on The Swamp with Howard Franklin, who has lobbied for Amazon, Google and Sprint. They discuss AIPAC, Beto O’Rourke calling Benjamin Netanyahu racist, and whether there is a basket of deplorables in Israel. They debate whether the Black agenda is connected to U.S. foreign policy and the swamp. They also discuss the swamp practice of millionaire politicians transferring value to family members and sacrificing good policy while in office for anticipated gains once they leave the swamp.

This is part 1 of “The Swamp” series. Jamarlin talks to corporate lobbyist Howard Franklin, who has represented Amazon, Google, and Sprint. We unpack former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s saying, “lobbyists write our laws,” and debate whether taking on the swamp should be a top 5 issue in Black America. We also discuss AIPAC aggressively recruiting at HBCUs and whether voters for the pro-Israel lobby group blew up Andrew Gillum’s campaign for governor of Florida.

Jamarlin continues his discussion with Frederick Hutson, founder and CEO of Pigeonly. They discuss how he raised capital, the importance of focus, and spending too much time perfecting the product before launch. They also discuss Jay-Z’s blueprint for parting ways with team members via his break-up with Damon Dash. Busted and jailed for four years on marijuana charges, Hutson talks about “Hollywood” criminal justice reform, reparations, and Jussie Smollett.